Tesla is being petty and overconfident here. Or maybe you the blogger is also coloring the statements by taking them out of context.
BMW is of course a douche company when it comes to eco but they did something right with the i3, that noone else has done and that invalidates Tesla Motors' stupid criticism. It's a pure electric car and the range extender is an option and only a tiny combustion engine relegated to the rear lower corner of the car where it belongs. Very different from the stupid Volt where it is indeed a mess of two complete drivetrains in a car. The i3 solution allows the pure experience of an electric car to remain untarnished and the range extender is only a small emergency backup that you only think about in the rare cases that you need it. As it should be.

Same as you have a little hand portable generator for your house in case of power out as opposed to a train engine always pounding in the middle of your living room, ruining the experience.
It's not junk in the nose like it is in normal cars and it's not in the trunk either. It's out of sight and out of mind. BMW did good on that particular aspect.
BMW was also brave to play with carbon fiber, but I think they failed to benefit significantly from its use however. The very similar Audi A2 weighs 900kg, BMW i3 weighs 1250kg with a carbon fiber body. That's a failure.
i3 is far from perfect but to say it's not an electric car is idiotically petty of Tesla Motors.

I'm not sure it's true that BMW has said the i3 is just for meeting regulations either.

6:44 pm August 22, 2013

will mac wrote:

the issue with the range extender is that it really doesnt extend the range very much due to the tiny tank.

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